Drilling companies seek ways to improve drilling speed and efficiency in order to reduce costs. It has been known for some time that when a set of wells is drilled in a similar area of the same formation, subsequent wells on that pad typically are drilled faster and more efficiently than initial wells, presumably because the drilling teams “learn” to drill faster by relying on past experience and trial and error methods.
However, no satisfactory methodical approach has yet been developed to exploit historic drilling data of previously drilled wells to improve speed and efficiency in drilling new wells. Known attempts consider too few drilling indicators such as only mechanical specific energy (MSE) and rate of penetration (ROP), and/or fail to adequately consider that the relationship between these indicators often change in different formations and as drilling depth increases. That is, the relationship between drilling indicators can be non-linear as a function of formation and depth, and perhaps other indicators not considered.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a solution that addresses at least some of the deficiencies in the prior art.